A new scientific analysis aims to understand the fluid dynamics of the Boston Molasses Flood. The bursting of an enormous (about 2 million gallons) tank of molasses created one of the biggest disasters ever to hit that city. Although it happened almost a century ago — on January 15, 1919 — there’s been only a vague scientific understanding of how the molasses flowed. Estimates from that era said that a 30-foot-tall wall of molasses washed over Boston’s North End neighborhood at a speed of about 35 miles per hour.

Nicole Sharp is of course the creator of FYFD, the world’s most popular web site about fluid dynamics. Until very recently she lived in the Boston area, where she (among other things) began the extensive (and still ongoing) research into what happened in that long ago sticky, deadly flood.